Rachel Reeves and her recent budget are just the latest victims of a series of historic mistakes. Both are destined to join their recent predecessors as short historic footnotes.
A business student's perceptive question about whether the payback for long hours justifies the grind didn't get the response it deserved from me. Here's my imperfect attempt at answering her properly.
From the Children’s Hospital overshoot to the revival of rail schemes without credible studies, Ireland risks repeating past mistakes as independent evaluation fades and political urgency takes precedence over economic discipline.
The Metrolink challenge, now in mediation until Christmas, highlights an uncomfortable truth: Ireland’s planning and review processes are so fragmented that even broadly supported projects can be frozen by legal disputes, not planning substance.
If anyone tells you that COP 30 shows that climate action is dead, think again. Despite the headwinds caused by the Trump administration’s love for oil and the stalling by the EU on mandatory reporting, the transition away from fossil fuels is well underway.
Frustration about housing and infrastructure has led to confusion between private interests, environmental obligations, and the processes at play to balance them against the public good.
Irish players are getting penalised for actions that have been coached into them – deliberate, trained behaviours that are all about pushing boundaries. The problem is that referees now have their number.
The slowdown is not yet pointing to a recession. But why run both a security and political risk when there is no need to run either?
The majority of television watched in Ireland is imported, mostly from the UK. Public clamour for indigenous programming doesn’t match the private choices made in Irish homes.
The chancellor’s budget manages to create £22bn (€25.1bn) in desperately needed fiscal headroom as tax rises look to reduce the public finances' reliance on debt in the long term. But the question of growth still looms large.
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